Mural to be seen only by mental health staff and suicidal teens

Longmont artist Mario Miguel Echevarria was working last week on this painting, due to be installed at Mental Health Institute at Pueblo.

Longmont resident Mario Miguel Echevarria, who has created public art in Loveland, Fort Collins and other Front Range communities, is used to making things that will be seen by thousands of people. Last week, however, he was working on a mural that, though commissioned by the state, will be viewed only by staff in a 24-hour lockdown facility at the Mental Health Institute at Pueblo and the suicidal teens they treat, Echevarria said.

The artist does not mind that his work will have a limited audience. “Since it will be hidden away in a locked facility, it will not get much exposure,” he wrote in an email. “Art made without glory that could save a life.”

He did send me a couple of images of the work in progress. Here’s one of them: